Leaf shapes

leaf  shapes                    

In the fall when my classes are filled with new students who have not been through the shape lesson plans and activities Moving Studios offers, I like to introduce the concept through a series of Leaf Lessons.

I get juiced watching leaves dance down to the ground in the fall. I love to see the variety of colors, sizes and shapes of the leaves.   I often pick up leaves in the middle of the grocery store parking lot or elsewhere because they inspire me.  I may already have a big maple leaf and a small beech leaf but then I see a ginkgo leaf—a fan shape—and I get excited!  Preschoolers are so interested in nature and often are learning lessons in school about leaves so it is a good way to relate to them and to their curriculum while introducing several dance concepts.

Over three or more classes I use leaf lessons for at least part of my class.  I enrich the lesson with poems, music, books, hoops, and of course, leaves.

Lesson 1

After a warm-up I will have the children sit in a circle and we’ll talk about what is happening outside.  If there are windows in the classroom we may watch some leaves fall down.  Then in our circle we use our hands as the leaves and I recite this poem written by Brianna Bower (the daughter of a colleague):

                 The wind blows up,

                  The wind blows down,

                  The wind blows all around.

                   It shakes the leaves right off the trees

                  And they float gently to the ground.

We pretend our hands are the leaves and move them up and down and all around, shake them and then float them to the ground.  With our hands flat on the ground we talk about how when the leaves are on the ground the wind might blow them up into the air again.  Or they lie there and turn brown and curl up at the edges.  Then we repeat the same poem changing the last line to “And drops them on the ground” for a faster falling leaf.

Next, we stand up and pretend our whole body is a leaf and try the poem both ways.  We try slow music (Chopin) music and then fast music behind the poem  (Mozart, Squirrel Nut Zippers, We got the Beat).

Lesson 2

The second class is when I bring some leaves in and we repeat the first class activity adding shape to the discussion.  We try to make pointy oak leaves with our bodies and heart shaped leaves and skinny leaves and star shaped leaves.  We repeat our dances. 

                                                  

Sometimes I add more poems:

Brown leaves, brown leaves all around,

            Twirling, swirling to the ground.

See them dancing through the air.

            See them falling everywhere. 

***

            Leaves are drifting slowly down.

            They make a carpet on the ground.

Then, swish!  The wind comes whistling by,

And sends them dancing in the sky!

(These poems are from Donna Starkman, my Moving Studios partner, but I am not sure who wrote them)

As you can see, these have inspiring movement words in them.  What child does not like to twirl and swirl?
And dance, and fall.

After we’ve danced the poems and are ready for a transition I will ask:  “And what happens once the leaves are on the ground?  All over my yard?”  I wait for a response from the kids and they eventually come up with the idea of raking the leaves.

“Yes, I need to rake them up,” I say.                         

I will mime raking the children/leaves into a pile (Donna recently added miming a leaf blower!).  Sometimes I pretend to rake the kids to the end of the room.  Then I’ll put out  hoops and we pretend they are piles of leaves.  We jump in and over them.   I pretend to rake the leaves into piles/hoops and get thirsty from all my work and go into my house for some water.  I turn my back on the kids while saying,  “And what do you think the children in the neighborhood do when they see those piles of leaves?”

I put on fast music and the kids laugh and start jumping in the hoops.  They love it when I pretend to get mad, chase them out of the yard, reorganize the hoops, and  go back  into the house.

(Of all the leaf activities I have done over the years the getting angry and chasing the kids out of the yard is the one that gets requests over and over again from the students!)

Lesson 3

A third class (usually over three weeks) is a repetition of the same activities with more leaf examples:  We make ourselves big fat maple leaves and then take the same shape and make it smaller.  We make our star shape and curl in at the edges.  Sometimes we throw actual leaves in the air and watch how they fall down.  We talk about when it’s not terribly windy and many leaves just spin or spiral almost straight down.  Naturally the kids love to hold t he leaves, drop them and catch them again.

We repeat our leaf dances one more time and it really is fun to see the children first in their leaf shapes, standing, attached to their trees. Then moving up, down, all around, shaking and drifting, spinning, or falling to the ground. Then rolling, blowing, curling on the ground.  Year after year I find myself enjoying dancing (especially the slow version to Chopin) with the children celebrating nature and movement.

Lots of ways to add to this plan.  Use scarves (especially green, yellow, orange, red and gold) as leaves. 

Many books about leaves can add to the fun.  Someone can be the wind blowing the leaves around the room